Interested in Starfield? Here's all of the news, gameplay, and more showcased at the recently concluded Starfield Direct.

Starfield is one of the most anticipated games coming from Bethesda Softworks. This space-based open-world (or open-galaxy) role-playing game is one of the most ambitious in gaming history. Although we know quite a few details about the game, like its release date, or just how in-depth its dialogue is, we haven't really seen everything the game has to offer. Thankfully, the recent Starfield Direct gives us so many details about the game, from its gameplay to its numerous planets, and more. Without further ado, let's dive into the contents of Starfield Direct.

General Information

Let's start off with the general information. Starfield is a role-playing game with first/third-person shooter gameplay elements. Players take control of a single character and must explore the game's huge galaxy. Players have a spaceship under their control that they can use to travel from one planet to another. While on the planet, they can explore its surface, gather resources, and more. The player is not alone in their travels, as they will have companions and a crew with them wherever they go. The team behind Starfield described the game's art direction as “NASA-punk”. They focused a lot more on the “low-fi” aspects of technology than the “sci-fi”.

In-game Galaxy

As mentioned above, the game happens inside a huge galaxy. This is not an exaggeration. Developers mentioned during the livestream that the game has over 1000 planets that the player can visit. The surface of these planets is procedurally generated, with points of interest placed on them. They will also have a wide variety of plants and animals on them, which the player can scan and survey.

While most of these planets are generally uninhabited with some signs of life, there are also planets that are highly developed. This includes the New Atlantis of the Alpha Centauri system and Cydonia on Mars in the Sol System. Players will be able to access and explore these locations, as they are like the hubs in video games. Players will be able to buy and sell items, upgrade their ships, take quests, and more.

Additionally, there are various space stations, star fields, and more that the player can dock into while in space. In fact, players can even dock with other ships, be it to interact with their crew, or to take over its ship.

Factions

There are four or so major factions in the game. There's the United Colonies, a group of colonies all under one banner and government. There's the Freestar Collective, a confederate group of three distinct star systems. The Crimson Fleet is the third faction, made up of a group of space pirates. Finally, there's the Constellation, a small group of space explorers and adventurers. This is the faction that your character is part of.

As with most Bethesda games, the player will likely be able to pick one of these factions to support. The story will definitely change depending on which factions the player decides to support. Not only that but how each faction treats you will also likely depend on which faction the player is a part of. This leads to the game's replayability, as you will definitely do multiple runs to experience all the game has to offer.

Character Customization

Starfield's character customization is very robust. This is true when the player is changing up their character's appearance, as well as when choosing their play style.

On the appearance front, players have a lot of sliders to play around with. They can change a lot of things, such as their body type, walk style, skin tone, head shape, and more. This lets players really customize their characters to make them appear as they want. They can use this to make their characters look like them or to make funny abominations.

Other than the character's appearance, the player can also select a background for their character. This is very reminiscent of the older Elder Scrolls games like Oblivion, where players had to select a Background that decided which skills they had bonuses in. Additionally, the player can choose some additional traits, which give some buffs and debuffs. One such example is the Hero Worshipped trait, which brings back the Adoring Fan from Oblivion.

These traits not only give you buffs but can also help you a lot in Starfield's gameplay. For example, some traits help you bypass some combat situations, while others can get you items. Traits are optional, but selecting some can really spice up your Starfield gameplay.

Character Growth

There are five skill trees in Starfield: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Each of these trees has four tiers of skills in them, which the player can unlock. Whenever a player goes up a level, they receive a skill point. They can then use this skill point to unlock one of the skills in the tree. Each skill has four ranks, each rank improving said skill. However, players cannot use skill points to improve their skill rank. They instead have to accomplish challenges to increase the rank of their skills.

Much like the player's backgrounds and traits, the player can fine-tune their skills to match their playstyle. For example, players can invest in stealth skills to be able to sneak their way past enemies and deal huge amounts of sneak damage. They can also put their skill points into melee combat, or even unarmed combat. The player can even just invest in a lot of non-combat skills and just enjoy exploring and interacting with NPCs. The possibilities are endless.

Player Spaceship

The player has access to a fleet of spaceships that they can freely modify to suit their needs. For example, the player can go to a dock and buy upgrades that will improve their ship's combat capabilities. They can also buy upgrades that will improve the defensive shields of the ship. Alternatively, the player can also build their ship from scratch. The game's ship customization feature allows players to mix and match parts together in any configuration. The player's imagination is the limit. In fact, during the livestream, they showed off a ship that looked like a robot.

After customizing their ship, the player can then fly it into space. There, the player can freely explore the universe and do whatever they want. They can dock with the space stations or with other ships. The player can also choose to use their Grav Drive to travel to other systems. If they wanted to, they can also have dog fights with other ships they see. The player can choose to take these ships down in a space battle or board them to take over the enemy ship.

Combat

There are two types of combat in the game: space combat, and player combat. When fighting in space, as mentioned above, the player can take control of their ship and participate in space dogfights. While doing this, the player can actively allocate energy to the ship's various systems. The more energy it has, the stronger that system becomes. For example, players can allocate a lot of energy to their shields, improving their strength. They can also allocate energy to their weapons, making them fire and reload faster. Alternatively, they can also put that energy into the ship's Grav Drive, decreasing the time needed to use it.

When controlling the character themselves, the player then switches to their own weapons. The game has a variety of guns available, from assault rifles and machine guns to submachine guns and pistols. The player can even use various melee weapons or their fists. What's interesting is that these weapons can actually affect combat in various ways. For example, if you are fighting in low or zero-gravity environments, normal firearms can actually push you backward. Energy weapons, on the other hand, won't have this effect.

Additionally, the player can modify their guns like in Fallout 4. The player can make the gun's magazine size bigger, make its barrel length longer for more accuracy, or add silencers for stealthy missions. It is up to the player how they want to modify their weapons to suit their needs.

Companions

Companions can assist the player in various ways. This includes combat, becoming a crew member for your ship, and even working on your outpost. There are a variety of characters that the player can recruit. This includes the NPCs that are vital to the game's story, as well as NPCs that the player may run into in their travels. The player can assign them on their ship or outpost, and use their skills to help out around where they are assigned.

There is also a relationship system in the game, allowing you to improve your relationship with the NPCs. In fact, some of the companions are romanceable. This means that players can, after a lot of work, have a partner inside the game.

Outposts

As mentioned above, players can set outposts up. Players can find a planet that they like and start building their outpost there. The player can either build their outpost like in Fallout 4, that is, on foot, or they can use a more traditional top-down layout. Either way, the player will be able to design the outpost of their dreams.

After building an outpost, the player can decide what they want to do with it. They can either set it up to gather resources and refine them, or just create a home for you to visit every now and then.

That's all of the information we got from the Starfield Direct, from the gameplay showcase, news, and more. For more information about the game's release, you can check out our release date article for the game. Otherwise, check out our gaming news articles for the latest in gaming news.